Frederick Douglass's Struggles

“I do not recollect of ever seeing my mother by the light of day. She was with me in the night. She would lie down with me, and get me to sleep, but long before waked she was gone.” (932). Though Douglass does not know his mother for long, the reader can infer that his mother comes to him for comfort, not only to attempt to comfort her son, but to comfort herself and the separation she had from her beloved child.

Born to a slave woman, Frederick narrates how he was separated from her at a tender age, and only got to see her a few times before she died and was buried in a funeral that he wasn’t allowed to attend, he also never got to know who his real father was (Douglass 3). He further narrates about how he was

Realizing in his struggles that mental strength can overcome physical abuse. What made Frederick such an amazing man was what he did with what others said about him and the things he did the brave steps he took, he didn 't take it personally and just stopped doing what he believed in just because other people didn 't like it or agree with it. The hate he received made him stronger in the end. If he had taken what people said to heart than he probably wouldn 't have accomplished all that he did. When Hugh Auld 's wife Sophia defied the ban of teaching slaves to read and write and decided to teach Frederick.

Looking back upon his mothers passing when he was around the age of seven, Douglass “received the tidings of her death with much the same emotions [he would] have probably felt at the death of a stranger”. This was because of the unfair separation brought to the family since Douglass was born of a slave mother and a white father who was supposedly his master. Mistresses could be the most unanticipatedly barbarous. Being a woman, a gentle and motherly disposition would be expected but usually they could be the cruelest if they assumed that slaves obtained favor from their master. The constant torment done to women throughout the account of Douglass’ life not only traumatized them but Douglass as well.

Fredericks master would allow this no longer. He informed her that if she kept this up. Frederick would be too knowledgeable, and be unfit to be a slave. Frederick was inspired by his master’s words. So he set out to get as much knowledge as he could.

With this, Douglass is addressing the topic of slavery and whether to abolish it or not. And goes about telling the hardships he went through.

Lastly, Douglass’ explains his thought on slavery and from what he says it becomes ironic. One of the ironies in the book that Douglass talks about is how religious slaves are more cruel than non-religious slaves. In chapter 9, Douglass’ master, Thomas Auld, became

Douglass managed to overcome the maltreatment of his wretched slave owners through the eventual attainment of freedom. The injustice imposed upon the African-American slaves by their owners was the crux of Douglass’s motivation to escape this inhumane life. Adolescents in today’s society could use Frederick’s determination as an example of moving forward to better oneself or one’s situation regardless of

Douglass tells about his own childhood and how his father might have been a slaveholder. He explains

In “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”, Douglass narrates in detail the oppressions he went through as a slave before winning his freedom. In the narrative, Douglass gives a picture about the humiliation, brutality, and pain that slaves go through. We can evidently see that Douglass does not want to describe only his life, but he uses his personal experiences and life story as a tool to rise against slavery. He uses his personal life story to argue against common myths that were used to justify the act of slavery. Douglass invalidated common justification for slavery like religion, economic argument and color with his life story through his experiences torture, separation, and illiteracy, and he urged for the end of slavery.

Abolitionism was a well-known movement around the time of the Civil War and its aim was to put an end to slavery. The people of the early nineteenth century viewed the elimination of slavery in numerous ways. Some fought against the end of slavery, some appeared to mildly support the cause and yet others wholeheartedly supported the ending of slavery until their dying day. Charles Finney was a religious leader who promoted social reforms such as the abolition of slavery. He also fought for equality in education for women as well as for African Americans.

Slavery started in the year of 1619 in the southern part of the United States where Maryland is located and also where slavery was a way of life. Slavery was still a way of life when Frederick Douglass was born. Douglass was born into slavery, although the date of when he was born is not exact. Douglass was one of the slaves that is remembered well by a lot of people because he was a slave that became an abolitionist and wrote a book entitled Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. In his book, Douglass argued that slaves were treated no better than, and sometimes worse than, livestock by telling a story about adultery and how the animals were fed better than the slaves.

Frederick is living with Master Hugh and is self teaching himself because the mistress wants to follow orders from Master Hugh. Even in knowing this it didn’t stop Frederick from pushing towards something he knew he needed. “During this time, I succeeded in learning to read and write. In accomplishing this, I was compelled to resort to various stratagems” (Douglass 50). He was learning and was dedicated by doing multiple strategies to get it done.

Douglass tells us this by saying that he believes anyone who is a slave owner cannot be a Christian. In his view, he believes being a slave owner violates the very principles of being a Christian. Auld quote he believes that the Christianity practiced by the Slave owners and the Christianity practiced by non-slave owners are two

Douglass states: “The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers. I could regard them in no other light than a band of successful robbers, who had left their homes, and gone to Africa, and stolen us from our homes, and in a strange land reduced us to slavery” (Douglass 51). Reading and writing opened Frederick Douglass’s eyes to the cause of the abolitionist. He became knowledgeable about a topic that white slave owners tried to keep hidden from their slaves. Literacy would eventually impact his life in more ways than what he could see while he was a young slave under Master Hugh’s